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Sipping wine in our
garden resting between two gruelling but exciting jobs, in a beautiful location
in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire ... The immortal words were uttered........ “WE
NEED A VIEW!” ... A light bulb moment!!!????

Our house which was the
Folly in the style of a Greek Temple; had once been the 100th room of the
McAlpine Estate. The original owner of the main house had counted all the rooms
and found that there were only 99, disliking uneven numbers. He commissioned the
100th room to his estate with the construction of a Folly. We rebuilt and
refurbished the Folly into a bijou but stylish home; but that is for another
blog! ... The Folly is in the centre of a plot of land surrounded by enormous
beech tree’s and manicured laurel hedges...... There was I thinking we were
going to have a break from work... But no a plan was hatched ... Immediately
and detailed sketches and drawings were worked on... Conversations with local
planners took place to check what building regulations are requirements were
needed....

The first of a number of issues relating to
the build was that we could not break through the underground chalk membrane as
this would affect the Thames Water regulations. This is a problem if you are
intending to dig deep! ....There was no way of knowing where the chalk started
and the clay stopped, the only way this could be tested was to start digging! A
risk as the project was very grand, the dimensions of what at the time was
referred to as the ‘hole’. Were 35ft deep, by 50ft wide, by 75ft long. We had
already ordered and paid for 200 tons of rock that were due to be delivered from
a quarry in Yorkshire. We decided to dig! Hell!! .... You don’t do this unless
you are mad or committed, fortunately we are both and it was a landscape
designers dream!

Having checked with all
local authorities to see if there are any underground utilities running under
the property, The Southern Electricity Board (SEB), sent a team of people with
all sorts of gadgets to make sure we were okay to dig. The paperwork came back
with the green light ...... Day one the digger started, clearing the area
getting it ready for the crane to come in..... The quantity surveyors
calculations, stated that we would need three eight wheeled lorries in constant
daily rotation for approximately three weeks..... The crane was capable of
lifting one ton of soil per scoop. Boy it was going to be exciting!..... The
digger started, I was in the Folly working when the was an explosion like I have
never heard, and all electrics went off! Opening the front door .... All eyes
were on the hole that the digger had just dug, there was much scratching of
heads and bemused looks ... It would appear that we had hit a 4 inch high
voltage mains electrical cable and put a nick in it!!

Within fifteen minutes
you could hear sirens blaring, cars hooting and general mayhem off in the
distance? ..... Then three siren blaring cars skidded to a halt outside our
gate, a number of panicked looking men came flustering into the garden. The
Southern Electricity Board had not identified a major electricity cable running
across the garden. The digger had hit the cable and blown all the electricity at
the local sub station; which had knocked out most of the electricity in Henley,
not least the traffic lights and all the banks electronic communications!! ....
‘Opps’!! The site was shut down, SEB workers arrived and there was much
panicking!! Emergency cables were set up and order was eventually restored
electricity wise to the local area!!

As you can imagine this
sort of high lighted the project to the press and the locals. Not least delaying
the project whilst we fought with the SEB as to who was to blame and who was to
pay for the reinstatement of a new electricity cable. Eventually the SEB agreed
that they had not highlighted the cable to us and offered to go halves on it’s
relocation!! ... We declined to pay for their mistake and they then spent a week
relaying a cable at their cost! ... And so we started again!

As the ‘hole’ got bigger
it became impossible for the digger to get any deeper so, we used the crane to
drop the digger into the ‘hole’. Once we got to the desired depth and width, we
shuttered the base with timber sheets in readiness for the pouring of concrete
for the pool base. Because of the complexities of the design the company Ready
Mixed Concrete had to mix a special concoction of concrete with a water
proofing additive, the same mix that was used in the construction of the
underwater harbour in Tokyo. When they came to pour the concrete they bought a
camera crew, as they were going to use the project in their new sales promotion
documents!

We ploughed on, installing steal
re-enforcement around the entire sunken construction.... But we had another
problem, we had become a sight seeing location by interested locals...The Folly
was on a private single track road, so viewing traffic along with our constant
use of the road taking away spoil, was impacting on our neighbours .... It is
always important to keep the neighbours happy where you can!! ... A local
reporter turned up at the property to interview us.... It turned out that the
rumour was that Michael Jackson had purchased The Folly and was digging an
underground tunnel to the nearby Friar Park Estate, which was up the road to us
and was the home of George Harrison .... Friar Park is the most beautiful
landscaped estate, which has secret tunnels running under it from place to
place... But we had no intention of digging into George Harrisons house... As
you might imagine!!!

So we were forced to
erect shields to protect our new found fame! But this interest came at another
cost ... One day the local authority's turned up unannounced; we had been
informed on and if it was not to be Michael Jackson’s secret hide away, they
assumed we were mining for minerals!! Give me strength!! ... I mean really can’t
anyone do a bit of landscaping construction in their garden? After much
discussion and grumpiness on their part, they agreed we could continue, but they
were going to keep an eye on us!! At this moment and the memory of such
negativity from others my quote would be Carp Diem .... And ignore the bank
balance!!

There was one very
frightening moment, (outside of the bank balance!) At 3 am in the morning; I
stood at the top of the ‘hole’ and my partner stood at the bottom. It was
pouring heavy rain and we needed the walls of the ‘hole’ to hold before the last
pouring of the concrete. As the walls were made up of clay, the weight of the
rain could at anytime undermine the sides of the construction. Now that would be
expensive!! Fortunately we had put extra support on the road side of the
construction in order to prevent us taking out the road in case we had this
exact situation! The next morning one side had collapsed, in the process it had
demolished all the steal reinforcement on that side of the ‘hole’ making it look
like bent safety pins! ... More reconstructive work was needed ...

The Butyl liner arrived,
which was made to a special size and was so heavy the crane had be used to get
it off the lorry and in place.... All the rocks had been sized an numbered in
order of where they were to be placed, the smallest rock was half a ton and the
largest 7.5 tonnes; because of their weight there was no second chance in
placing them, it was a very precise business!! ... Some of the stones had to be
drilled so they could be held in place with stainless steal pins ....

I can still hear the
noise of the cranes loud alarm system screeching, warning lights flashing, when
we tried to place the largest rock on the podium stone. The wonderful crane
driver, rocked the boom so that the rock swung backward and forward; I thought
the crane was going to fall into the rockery. But this crane driver was highly
skilled, he placed the rock with perfect precision..... In a conversation with
him afterward he said that it was an unnerving moment in his life, but he was
used to pressure as he currently held the title of the United Kingdoms heavy
weight bench pressing title!! ....

The rockery had three
100mm (4”) outlets, which pumped water loudly all day. It had a cut of switch at
night, you could hear it firing up in the mornings.... It was an amazing site
.... We bought in another digger to excavate a valley to the rockery and heavily
landscaped the whole area ..... On one occasion we were woken in the middle of
the night with helicopters and flood lights scanning at low level over the
rockery... It was in 1999, after the appalling attack on George Harrison, by an
armed intruder, who had stabbed him. The police were searching the area for any
accomplices and they thought that maybe they were hiding in the rockery. We
would also have the odd balloon flight going over the top of the house to take
photographs, they would wave and call to us in the garden!

It was beautiful in every
way, it played the centre of stage at many a bohemian party and private events.
We swam in the pool and climbed the rocks. I loved it and was passionate about
it. We have done many other landscaping projects, but the rockery was for us! We
sold the house to a pop star and moved on to our next project. But we had
created a ‘Folly with a View’; that will remain there long after we are gone and
always be in my heart forever!

Situated in the heart of Mayfair is the very
stylish Avery Row with its trendy bespoke shops, cafes, exclusive restaurants
and designer pubs. This area is sandwiched between South Molton Street, Brook
Street and Oxford Street, the area was once referred to as Poverty Lane,
reflecting the nature of the neighbourhood at the time. How the times have
changed .... Darling!!!. The twisty turny lanes actually follow the route of one
of London’s most famous lost waterways the Tyburn. Avery Row takes its name from
the bricklayer who cleverly paved over the waterway to make the streets.

Avery House, circa 1800 was a brothel with and
a thriving business! When we took the project on with a commercial brief to turn
it into a prestigious office head quarters, it was in massive need of
modernisation and refurbishment. We opened up the roof and put in a stylish roof
garden, but under the local regulations this could only be used at certain times
of the day. The basement was vast with old brick walls, but was running with
water and needed tanking. It was a big project.

The finished product was stunning, even if I do
say that myself!! It was put on the market and was quickly snapped up by Cartier
Jewellers at the highest per square foot cost in Mayfair at the time. I should
say it is a headquarters building not a stash for their jewellery, in case
anyone is thinking of doing a heist off the back of this blog!! No workshops
there!! But respecting their privacy there is no photo’s of the interior here
either.

As a matter of interest, a lot of the jewellery
companies in London do not advertise their workshops, Cartier itself was in 1997
robbed, by a gang of thieves, who came in via the skylight, it was alleged at
the time that they stole more than £30 million, however Cartier later denied
that it was that amount! Police had no idea how the robbers knew where the
workshop were as they had no signage. I have been into one of the workshops at
another occasion. Which is no longer there, (so you can’t torturer it out of
me!) Whilst I was in the workshop one of the jewellers poured a bag of cut
diamonds into my hand, he asked me how much they were worth? It was £30,000.00
.... Cool!! But I was not allowed to take them home!!

I have also worked at Garrard & Co,
Mayfair, London – The offices desperately needed upgrading and
refitting. Whilst I was there I was given a tour of the workshops, there was
some beautiful jewellery. I was lead into a small room with an old man sitting
at the table with multi-layered glasses on. He was working on a solid gold
castle encrusted in diamonds for a client. It was huge and possibly the most
garish thing I have ever seen. But I suppose each to their own! I mention this
just encase any of you would like to buy me something .... I like modern and
stylish !!!